Gretna becomes wedding hotspot again as English couples work around lockdown
Weddings are still permitted north of the border but all weddings in England have been suspended during the month-long lockdown
In the Eighteenth Century, it became known as the destination for star-crossed lovers to escape just two miles over the border and elope, taking advantage of the far more liberal marriage laws at the time in Scotland.
And thanks to Covid-19 restrictions, Gretna has once again become a destination for English couples to avoid tighter restrictions in their own country to tie the knot.
While England’s month-long lockdown means all weddings, with the exception of cases where a bride or groom is terminally ill, have been suspended, they are still permitted north of the border.
It means that more than two-and-a-half centuries since a law was passed in England forbidding those under 21 from marrying without their parents’ permission, and 43 years since it was repealed, Gretna has once again become a sanctuary for couples unable to get married closer to home.
Sam and Vanessa Maddison had originally planned to get married in August, but saw their plans ruined by the pandemic. They postponed until April next year, but were put off by the possibility of restrictions on guest numbers. Instead, they married in secret on Saturday after, as the famous saying goes, 'running away to Gretna Green'.
“We just didn’t think it was going to be possible to have a big wedding,” Mrs Maddison, a 28-year-old primary school teacher from County Durham, said. “So we decided six weeks ago to do it with just the two of us.
“If we’d gone ahead in April, and guests were capped at say 30 people, it would have just upset people who we wouldn’t have been able to invite. So we decided to just focus on us.
Sian and Andrew Ray from Spalding in Lincolnshire following their wedding CREDIT: Stuart Nicol
“When the lockdown got announced, we checked with the venue but they said because it was a pre-planned event we could still travel.
“We didn’t tell everyone we were going to do it, so we’ve just been telling everyone and not having to keep it a secret any more is really nice.”
Mrs Maddison said she knew about the history of Gretna, and that she and Sam, a 32-year-old HGV driver, settled on the location in part because of its romantic heritage.
“We liked Gretna because it had more meaning than if the two of us had just gone to the registry office,” she said.
Gretna is in Dumfries and Galloway, which is currently in level two of Scotland’s five-tier lockdown system, which operates on a scale of zero to four. It means weddings can go ahead with up to 18 guests, although social distancing rules have to be observed.
The town built up its reputation as the wedding capital of Scotland after an English law passed in 1754 stopped couples under 21 marrying without parental consent. In Scotland, however, girls from the age of 12 and boys aged 14 could marry.
Gretna was the first town couples would come to after crossing the border, with Gretna Green becoming famous for marriages.
In addition, anyone in Scotland could marry a couple ‘by declaration’, with enterprising blacksmiths becoming ‘anvil priests’ and carrying out ceremonies in exchange for a drink or a few guineas.
While the differences in marriage law between England and Scotland are now only minor, with marriage by declaration outlawed in 1940, the area has retained its allure, with in a normal year 5,000 couples tying the knot there every year. Wedding venues in Gretna have said that on a normal year, up to 80 per cent of couples are from England.
While in Scotland there is guidance against cross-border travel, as well as leaving council areas for non-essential reasons in areas in the upper two tiers of the local lockdown system, there is an exemption for travelling for marriages.
On Saturday, Becca Howells, an A&E doctor, and Tom Howells, an RAF engineer, from Stafford, said they had arranged their marriage after having trouble arranging it in England. Another couple, Sian and Andrew Ray, from Lincolnshire, also married in the town at the weekend.
A UK Department of Transport spokesman confirmed there was an exemption to the travel ban during lockdown in England for people going to weddings.
Although English people should normally stay at home, the regulations provide an exception if it is "reasonably necessary" to attend a marriage or civil partnership ceremony.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: "Our travel guidance still allows travel to/from England for a wedding."
